1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pre-viewing inspection method for an article prior to visual inspection and a device therefor.
2. Related Background Art
In conventional manufacturing processes for various products, various inspection steps are provided in order to prevent a product having serious defects and not suitable for use, namely a defective product, from being forwarded to the market. In such inspection steps, the inspection by inspection devices is often insufficient for the following reasons and visual inspection by an inspector is adopted in many cases.
Defects in an inspection article do not necessarily lead to practical drawbacks, depending not only on their area or volume but also on their shape and nature. Stated differently, there are many defects which do not have practical influence, and it is unnecessary to discard an article with a defect having no practical influence. Also there is no inspection device capable of immediately evaluating the influence of the defects of such various forms on the practical use. Furthermore, an inspection device may erroneously identify a defect that in fact does not exist. These reasons lead to the necessity for the visual inspection by an inspector. Inspection devices have been improved in their ability in resolution for detecting finer defects and are provided with a logic circuit for judging whether an article is usable or not, but the judgment at the boundary level is entrusted to an inspector as stated above.
The visual inspection by an inspector is a visual inspection in which an inspector inspects defects in articles on which it is difficult for an inspecting device to judge whether the article are usable or not, and determines whether the article is usable or not, on the basis of comparison with criteria of defects or empirical rules.
In recent years, however, higher quality has been required for the articles to be inspected, and the defects to be judged by an inspector have become smaller and smaller. For this reason, the burden on such an inspection has increased, resulting in a deterioration in the inspection efficiency or inspection errors by an inspector in the final judgment.
The object of the present invention is to provide a pre-viewing inspection method (or an inspection method prior to visual inspection) for assisting the visual inspection which has been principally directed to detection of minute defects and improving the efficiency and precision of the inspection, and a device therefor.
The above-mentioned object can be attained, according to the present invention, by a pre-viewing inspection method for an inspection article, comprising:
a defect signal detection step of detecting a defect signal based on a defect state of the article;
a detailed defect information generation step of generating detailed defect information based on the defect signal detected in the defect signal detection step; and
a detailed defect information visualization step of visualizing the detailed defect information, generated by the detailed defect information generation step, on the inspection article.
According to the present invention, a pre-viewing inspection device (or an inspection device prior to visual inspection) for an inspection article is provided comprising:
defect signal detection means for detecting a defect signal based on a defect state of the article;
detailed defect information generation means for generating detailed defect information based on the defect signal detected by the defect signal detection means; and
detailed defect information visualization means for visualizing the detailed defect information, generated by the detailed defect information generation means, on the inspection article.